Afghan Ministry: NATO Strike Kills Afghan Forces

Afghan children run as a NATO helicopter takes off with a container in the outskirts of Kabul,...

Afghan children run as a NATO helicopter takes off with a container in the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009. More than 25 ISAF and Afghan National Security Force personnel were killed or wounded during a joint operation that involved multiple engagements over several hours Nov. 6, 2009 in Western Afghanistan, a NATO spokesman said. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

(AP)

U.S. and Afghan authorities investigated Saturday whether a botched NATO airstrike was to blame for the death of Afghan soldiers and police during a search for two American paratroopers missing in a Taliban-infested area of the country's west.

The probe into a possible friendly fire incident further aggravates already strained relations between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the international community, which holds his enfeebled government partly responsible for rising instability.

After enduring a drumbeat of criticism from world leaders in recent days, the Afghan government struck back on Saturday, saying it viewed a U.N. official's prescription for ridding the country of corruption and warlords as an infringement on its national sovereignty.

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The airstrike occurred Friday during heavy fighting in Badghis province, a remote area that borders Turkmenistan. Two days earlier, two American paratroopers disappeared there while trying to recover airdropped supplies that had fallen into a river. Fighting broke out between members of a search team and Taliban insurgents, the U.S. military said.

Eight Afghans — four soldiers, three policemen and an interpreter — were killed. Seventeen Afghan troops, including soldiers and police, five American soldiers and another Afghan interpreter were wounded, the U.S. said.

Afghanistan's Defense Ministry said the deaths and injuries likely happened "during an air attack by NATO forces" on a joint U.S.-Afghan base.

U.S. officials would not confirm the account, but said in a statement that a joint investigation was under way to determine whether any of the casualties were caused by NATO "close air support."

The top U.S. and NATO commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has ordered commanders to use airpower sparingly to minimize civilian casualties, which threaten to undermine Afghan support for the war against the Taliban. However, commanders are free to call in airpower to defend themselves against Taliban attack.